The 20-year-old Jamaican was clearly ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt's Marius Wolf (13 per cent) and Borussia Dortmund's Michy Batshuayi (7.4 per cent) in the VDV vote. In the previous vote, it was Ousmane Dembélé – now at Barcelona – who won out against Bayer 04 pro Kai Havertz.
Bailey, who scored nine goals and provided six assists for Bayer 04 in the Bundesliga last term, was also named in the 'VDV Team of the Season'by his fellow professionals – along with the two defenders Philipp Max (FC Augsburg) and Naldo (Schalke 04) and midfielder Naby Keïta (RB Leipzig) he was one of only four non Bayern Munich players in the line-up. Bailey received 41.9 per cent of the votes.
Top goalscorer Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) was awarded the 'Silver Boot' for the best player of the season and the coaches' 'Silver Bench' award went to Jupp Heynckes (Bayern Munich).
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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